Sonny Boy
by FerryBerry
Summary: Post S6. Rachel and Sam bring a baby boy into the world, and Quinn's love for the mother bleeds over to the son.
1. Part 1

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. All belongs to _Glee_ writers and creators.

**A/N: **I am not going to be updating for an undetermined amount of time for reasons explained on my Tumblr, so I'm adding a few things that have thus far only been on there for your enjoyment in the meantime.

**Part 1**

"What about Jake?"

"Mm-mm. It's lovely, but that's Noah's brother's name. Not to mention, Jacob Ben Israel."

"Oh, right. Okay. How about...Luke?"

"We are not naming our son after a Star Wars character, Sam. Or Star Trek. Or Avatar. Or a comic book character."

"Okay, okay. Sam, Jr.?"

Rachel sighed, staring down at long feathery lashes on round pink cheeks, little lips suckling away. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and that included a standing ovation in a full house on Broadway, after she'd finished her final song for the evening and the run of the show, only six short months ago. She was such a tiny person herself that she hadn't been able to continue portraying a non-pregnant lady beyond that third month of pregnancy. She'd already been showing quite roundly that night.

"I want him to be his own person. Have his own name. You understand, right?"

She peered up at Sam briefly, through her own long lashes, and he just smiled.

"I do." He squeezed his arm around her shoulders and lightly stroked a finger down his son's cheek. "But we still have to _pick_ a name for him to have his own name."

Rachel giggled a little. "I know… It's just a big responsibility."

"It is." Sam's tone was questioning, so she sighed.

"We're setting the tone for our son's entire life. Giving him an identity. His identity."

"Which is why I vetoed Jackie Daniels," a familiar voice cut in, and a grin blossomed on Rachel's lips before she could even cut off the motion, finding Quinn leaning in the doorway with a uniformed Noah right behind her.

"Hey. I was dumb then," Noah defended, and Quinn rolled her eyes with a scoff.

Rachel's grin spread wider. "Come in, please!"

Sam slid off the bed, reaching to shake Noah's hand as the two of them came forward - Noah to Sam, Quinn to Rachel's side.

"Well. You have a beautiful boy there," Quinn murmured, peering down at him.

"I think so," Rachel agreed. "Do you want to hold him?"

Quinn straightened. "No, I don't want to disturb him."

"It's okay, really - "

"No, it's fine." Quinn smiled. "I'll catch him later."

Rachel conceded reluctantly, petting the little tuft of brown hair on top of her son's head with just the pad of her thumb. It was amazing, just how small this little miracle was.

Quinn took a breath again. "No name yet, hm?"

Rachel frowned up at her. "No. Nothing seems to fit."

"I'm sure it'll come to you. Just give it time."

She nodded, peeking down at him again. "He's just a perfect angel. Do you think I can get away with naming him that? Perfect Angel Evans-Berry?" She giggled, and he hiccupped.

Quinn chuckled lowly. "With the government? Perhaps. With the other kids? Definitely not. But it can be his real name. Between us."

Rachel smiled up at her, and Quinn winked.

"Well. We'd better go," Noah interrupted, and Quinn straightened.

"Wait - why, where are you going?" Rachel begged, looking up at each of them searchingly. "You just got here."

"I'll be back later to see you guys, and for the homecoming party," Noah assured her, setting a hand on her shoulder. "But Quinn is only making her usual cameo appearance."

Quinn quirked an unpleasant eyebrow back at him before looking to Rachel again. "I will be back; it just depends on how things go how soon I'm back."

"What things?" Rachel poked out her bottom lip.

"Oh, even I don't know that. You know Quinn," Noah drawled, and Quinn only offered him another glare before she hugged Sam and met Noah at the door.

"I'll be back," Quinn assured, and Rachel only managed to offer a soft 'bye' before the two were gone.

"Well. Is it just me, or do you feel like a pit stop, too?"

Sam grinned at her, and Rachel couldn't help but giggle a bit before she bowed her head to kiss her Perfect Angel's head.

#

Quinn leaned her forehead against the glass window, the only point of separation between herself and the rows of babies beyond. Her own gaze was limited to the baby in the second row, third from the left. The name card still read Baby Boy Evans-Berry. Rachel hadn't decided, evidently, or Sam hadn't sold her on a name.

Quinn understood. It had been just as difficult for her to name Beth, and in the end, it was Puck who managed to find the perfect name. Granted, she hadn't _wanted_ to find a name. She hadn't wanted to give the child, as Rachel had put it, an identity. It was a fact known among everyone in the science world - if you named it, you'd start to care. She had started to care anyway, but the idea had seemed solid when it all started.

Besides all that...it _was_ a big responsibility, naming a child. It was an intense amount of pressure having one in the first place, and it had been most unexpected for Rachel. She'd had her life with Finn planned out at one time, of course. Even the names of their children. But Finn was gone and she had started this thing with Sam, and then maybe a condom broke or she missed a birth control pill - and Rachel had wound up pregnant. Even if she had started to think of her life with Sam, it was likely she hadn't gotten as far as kids yet.

So now Rachel was faced with being a mother, just like Quinn, and of course she was having trouble adjusting, having trouble accepting the responsibility of a life, of a name. Quinn would have struggled, too. That is, if it had anything to do with her at all. It didn't, of course. She reminded herself of that over and over again, to keep herself from hovering, from helping too much, from being at Rachel's side through every moment. From loving this child as if it were her own.

But then she saw him, in Rachel's arms. His long lashes, his round pink cheeks, the little tuft of brunette hair at the top of his head. It would be the same shade as Rachel's, she was sure of it. He was beautiful. Quinn loved him instantly.

And now he was wailing, and the nurse was across the room from him. Quinn lifted her head instantly, knocking on the glass to catch her attention, but rather than going to the baby, the nurse went to the door. Quinn rolled her eyes but rushed to meet her there, frowning as the woman smiled up at her.

"Can I help you?"

"He's crying, what's wrong?"

"I was just about to go see…" The nurse paused. "Are you a friend of the family?"

Quinn nodded impatiently, peering past her to the Perfect Angel, who sobbed louder.

"What's your name?" The nurse pulled out a clipboard, and Quinn puffed a breath.

"Quinn Fabray."

She nodded, scanning briefly before she smiled up at her. "You're on the list of visitors, if you'd like to come in and check on him yourself."

Quinn blinked, surprised - but she didn't think twice about coming in, rushing to the baby's crib. He cried up at her, shrieked, and waved his arms, and Quinn couldn't resist as she had with Rachel. She scooped him up from the bed, resting his head in the crook of her arm while he kicked his little feet and swung his little arms. Her heart stopped, the way it had when she'd first held Beth in her arms. And just as they had then, her eyes stung, so that she was almost - almost - crying with him, from the overwhelming joy of having him in her arms.

"Hey…" Quinn murmured to him, just above his crying. "Hey, darling. Hey, sonny boy, it's okay. Don't cry." She swayed, back and forth, rubbing her free hand on his round belly. "Don't cry. I'm here, sonny boy."

He hiccupped, blinked big, bright blue eyes at her. They were dark and wide, like Rachel's. Already, Quinn knew they would turn brown, in a short time. And she loved them. She blew out a deep breath to keep from letting the threatening tears loose - if she started to cry, he might cry again, too, and he was calming now, staring up at her in amazement. Like he had never seen anything like her before - and really, he hadn't.

Quinn smiled. "I will never let anything bad happen to you. Ever. Okay? I promise."

He blinked up at her, and she left a soft kiss on the crown of his head. He giggled.

The nurse slipped in by her, lifting up his clipboard, and Quinn swallowed.

"What-what's wrong?"

She smiled quickly. "Oh, nothing, don't worry. It's just time to change this little guy's name card."

And with that, she stepped away, and Quinn peered at the card. She smiled and looked back into those big eyes.

"Hi, Cameron. Hey, sonny boy. How do you like your name, hm?"

He bubbled at her, giggling, and Quinn grinned.

#

Rachel had been making far too much use of the TV since she'd been in the hospital. In the maternity ward, they were set up with two special channels - one that showed her baby in his crib, and one that gave a view of the nursery at large, in the case that one of the nurses was caring for the babe. Sam told her she shouldn't obsess, watching one or the other at all times, but she couldn't help herself.

So as soon as he went off to tell their son his new name, to bring him back to her for celebration, Rachel fingered the remote and turned the TV back on. Only, her son, her Cameron wasn't in his crib, so she flipped to the next channel. And there was Quinn, holding her son in the middle of the nursery, rocking him buoyantly but gently - to get him to stop crying.

There was no sound on these channels, but Rachel could see from his red head and the way she bent over him. He was upset, and Quinn was calming him as tenderly and gently as she might her own baby. Rachel's heart was so warm she couldn't help but smile, sitting up to get a closer look at the two of them, together, while Cameron calmed and Quinn spoke to him. And she was smiling, too.


	2. Part 2

**A/N: **Caught up with Tumblr.

**Part 2**

"Quinn?"

Quinn froze, but her body naturally resisted the instinct to jump, despite feeling immediately like a child with her hand in the cookie jar. A robber caught with the family jewels. Sam's easy, warm smile told her he thought nothing of the kind, but of course he didn't. He kissed his son's head and then her cheek when he arrived at the crib.

"We didn't think you'd be back so soon. I take it things went well?"

His hand stroked idly over his son's head, smoothing the feathery tuft of brown, while Quinn stood holding him.

"Uh - yes, yeah, things went fine. Did you want to take him?" She readied herself, for the burden of passing Cameron to his father - his _real_ parent.

But Sam shook his head. "No, it's cool, I've been hogging him like, since he popped out." He grinned at her. "Besides, you didn't get a chance to hold him while you were here, so. But I was just gonna take him up to see Rachel. We picked a name!"

Quinn nodded her head toward the crib. "I see that. Cameron. How'd you settle on it?"

She focused her eyes down on Cameron rather than Sam's joyous face. On the big eyes looking around, taking everything in. His tiny fingers curled into fists that occasionally waved and popped her arm or her chest, like little pillows in their impact.

"Rachel chose it. She was looking up baby name meanings or something and I guess Cameron means crooked nose and since she's hoping he doesn't get her big nose…"

Sam trailed off with a laugh when Quinn did, unable to help herself, and the little babe in her arms giggled and kicked his feet in his blanket. She smiled down at him, composing herself with the press of her lips, and nodded.

"Makes sense." She tickled a finger at the Perfect Angel's chin, and he giggled again. She sighed. "Well, you better not keep Rachel waiting…"

Sam raised his hands as she went to hand Cameron over. "You should come up, say hi. Besides, there's something I want to say to you."

Quinn's eyebrows popped up expectantly, but Sam only waved his hand for her to follow and went to open the nursery door for them. She hesitated and settled Cameron more comfortably against her shoulder, spying Sam jotting on the nurse's clipboard to say he'd checked his son out before stepping alongside her - on her right, so he could grin and tease at his son.

Cameron had the same smell as Beth had. Quinn knew it well. It was one scent memory she had never lost, no matter how she tried, no matter how much time passed. She remembered holding her daughter and breathing in that baby scent. New life. Precious life. It was soothing to Quinn, almost a reminder that she was there. She'd made it, and she was all right. Now she breathed in Cameron's smell, and she felt the warm weight of him in her arms, and she felt the same peace she had with Beth.

"So, I...I wanted to thank you, Quinn," Sam said at last.

She glanced aside at him, broken from her baby smell haze, and stroked up and down Cameron's back. "For what?"

"Well, for…" He cleared his throat when a doctor passed and stepped closer. "For helping out with the hospital bills and all the stuff you've borrowed to us, the clothes and the books and…. I promise I'm gonna pay you back."

Quinn felt his eyes stabbing at the side of her head. She cleared her own throat. "It's no problem, Sam. You don't owe me anything."

"Yes, I do. If you hadn't helped, then me and Rachel, we wouldn't have...we wouldn't have Cameron. Or we wouldn't be able to take care of him." Sam sighed next to her. "And you've kept it from Rachel, which I also really appreciate, cause I know it's not the first time I've asked you to protect my pride like that and - "

"It's _okay_, Sam." Quinn closed her eyes briefly, pressing a subtle kiss to Cameron's soft, soft cheek. "It's well worth it."

"I knew you'd feel that way. But even if you don't let me pay you back...I want to thank you, somehow."

"You just did."

Sam ignored that. "I haven't talked this over with Rachel yet, but. How'd you like to be Cameron's godmother?"

Quinn almost tripped on her own feet, stopping once she regained her balance. "What?"

He smiled and patted Cameron's back. "My son. I want you to be his godmother. For all you've done, it's the least you deserve."

She swallowed and changed her mind about standing still - she needed to move. "I'm not sure Rachel would agree with you on that. What if she wants...Mercedes, or-or Tina, or - "

"She'll want _you_," Sam disagreed, trotting to catch up with her. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think so already. She doesn't have to know all of what you've done to know you've helped us a _lot_."

"Not that much," she dismissed.

"Yes, that much. Besides, you know how Rachel feels about you. She thinks you're awesome."

She sighed. "Don't you want Kurt and Blaine to be the godparents?"

Suddenly, Sam was in front of her, and Quinn pulled up short.

"Look, Quinn, you don't have to say yes." He smiled gently. "Just think about it, okay?"

He patted her shoulder and then his son's back before he turned to open Rachel's door, and Quinn took a breath as tilted her head back to peek at Cameron. He was fast asleep on her shoulder, leaving a little spot of drool on her dress, but his fists were curled in the fabric, and Quinn's heart surged all over again. She kissed his feather soft hair, breathed in his scent. Legal godmother or not, it wouldn't matter. He was in her heart now, right next to his mother.

#

Rachel beamed the moment Quinn came in with Cameron resting against her shoulder, looking so natural and glowing, anyone might've thought Quinn was the one who'd just had a baby instead. She almost hated to take her son from Quinn's arms - he looked so comfortable - but just after they exchanged hellos, Quinn was already dipping down to carefully deposit him against Rachel instead, and she tucked him in the cradle of her arms gently.

"We weren't expecting you back so soon," she commented when Quinn straightened, looking ready to make a swift exit. "From the way Noah made it sound - "

Quinn was waving a dismissive hand. "He was teasing - me, mostly. I just had a little business to attend to, and now it's taken care of."

Rachel smiled minutely. "Good. Then you're staying for our homecoming party?"

She seemed to take a bracing breath. "Yes. And then I have to go back to Yale."

"So, your usual cameo appearance," Sam echoed, grinning across at Quinn.

Rachel nearly scolded him, but Quinn only rolled her eyes and said, "I suppose. Though I prefer to think of this one as a guest star episode."

"You could be a recurring character, if you accepted my offer."

Rachel's gaze darted between them. "What offer?"

"Nothing." Quinn waved her hand briefly again.

"I asked if she'd like to be Cameron's godmother, if you were okay with it, too." Sam folded his arms, kicking back in his chair. "She seems to think you wouldn't be, for some reason."

Rachel's jaw nearly dropped, but she kept her tone quiet for the sake of her snoozing son. "Quinn! Of course I'd love it if you would accept."

Quinn had gone from glowering at Sam to peering uncertainly at her - and Rachel smiled encouragingly, waiting.

"What about...Kurt and Blaine, don't you - "

"Oh, I fully intend on asking Kurt if he'll be the godfather, but that doesn't mean he can't still have a god_mother_. And you'd be perfect. You're the only one of us who knows what it's like to have a child, aside from Noah, and as much as he's progressed in the past few years, I still trust you more." Rachel gnawed on her lip, glancing briefly at Sam. "Besides, you've already done so much to help bring him into this world, even from all the way in Connecticut...it's only right that you have the honor of being there for him through his life. Not that you wouldn't be anyway, or couldn't, but it's the idea of...you know, the legality, the label, knowing that if something happens to us, you'll be there. And you've been such a good friend to Sam, even after the two of you broke up, not to mention, me. Even though we haven't done much in the way of keeping in touch aside from emailing, I still consider you one of my closest friends. What I said to you…" She glanced at Sam again. "You know, at prom, well. That still stands."

Quinn just looked at her, lips pursed and brow furrowed in that way that screamed she was thinking, heavily. So Rachel smiled at her, trying to loosen that tight face and tight frown, bobbing Cameron a bit in her arms.

"So, basically, what we are saying, Quinn Fabray, is...will you be our son's godmother?" She grinned widely.

Sam chuckled next to her, but Quinn only kept staring, flicking her gaze between all three of them. When she finally did speak, it was entirely inconclusive - but it was better than a 'no,' Rachel supposed.

"I'll think about it."

Rachel smiled. "Good. Just keep in mind, while you're thinking about it, that Cameron would be very disappointed if you said no and you really don't want a child's first experience in life to be disappointment. It could set a bad tone early on and prove to be very difficult to recover from, developmentally speaking.."

Quinn - finally - laughed, rolling her eyes through a smile. "But no pressure, right?"

"No pressure," she agreed easily, and grinned right back up at Quinn's twinkling eyes.

Up until she started staring down at her shoes, anyway. "I should go. Give the three of you some privacy."

"You don't have to leave," Rachel cut in, but Sam was already getting up to hug her.

"Actually, I do, because you see, I have some thinking to do," Quinn teased, prying away from Sam's arms. She winked, and Rachel felt an involuntary smile rise. "I'll see you all at the party, and I'll let you know then what I've decided."

Sam bobbed his head. "Great."

Quinn waved her hand briefly once she reached the door, and Rachel smiled a little in return before she looked back down to her quiet boy, perfectly content just lying there. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen him sleep this well, for this long. Usually he got fussy after a while, discontented about something or other, and though she could shush and coo him back to sleep, there was always something. Not that his patterns were set in stone yet - he was still a developing baby. And Rachel only hoped that Quinn wouldn't 'let him down.'


	3. Part 3

**Part 3**

It had been several years since Quinn had actually been to the Puckerman's house, but it didn't look like even a day had passed when she marched up the walk that afternoon, after her visit to Rachel and the baby. The inside wasn't much different, either, and the greeting certainly wasn't - a glare and a grunt from Mother Puckerman before she was pointed to Puck's room. The woman had called her a shiksa on more than one occasion when she was living there, and evidently the opinion hadn't changed.

Quinn shrugged it off and breezed back to Puck's room, knocking only once before she stepped in to find him ironing his uniform - she almost snorted, but managed to cover her mouth before such an unladylike noise could come out. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I had to learn to do it myself on base; got demerits for a sloppy uniform," he defended.

Quinn pushed the door shut behind her, smiling as she plopped on the edge of his bouncy mattress. "I didn't say a thing. Although you realize you don't actually have to wear your uniform when you're not on duty? I believe they call them 'civvies'?"

"Yeah, but you get a lot more phone numbers this way." Puck set the iron aside and shifted the pants to the next leg. "So? Did you get it?"

She smiled in spite of herself. "I did."

"That's great! So we don't have to be together anymore?"

"Thanks for that," Quinn scoffed. "No, we don't."

Puck had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry, it's just. I kinda met somebody."

"Oh? I hope she's Jewish or your mom's head is going to pop off."

"Gave you a rough time again?"

"Just the usual." Quinn adjusted her leg up onto the edge, so she could face him properly. "So? Who is she?"

"You don't know her. Air Force gal." He sighed wistfully. "She's like the perfect blend of Lauren's badassery, Santana's sex drive, Rachel's Jewishness, and your mysterious coy flirty thing you got going on. I don't know about the pipes, but if they're like Mercedes'? She's my perfect woman."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm happy for you. I guess. Although I wouldn't compare her to..._all_ of my ex-girlfriends to her face if I were you. Just a suggestion."

Puck snuffed. "So'd you see Rachel again?"

"I did." She clasped her hands on her knee after brushing a loose strand of fabric from her thigh.

He paused his ironing. "And…?"

Quinn shrugged. "She's doing fine. They named the baby. Cameron."

"No middle name?"

"Not that I know of."

"Cameron Evans-Berry." Puck nodded to himself and picked up the iron again. "Why didn't we ever think of Cameron?"

"Because I was trying not to think and you were only thinking of brands of whiskey? Besides, Cameron is more commonly a boy's name."

He shrugged. "So is Quinn."

She sighed. "Does it matter? I mean, really? Her name is Beth, it's beautiful, it fits her - _you_ chose it, so."

Puck paused to eye her for a moment, and she quirked her eyebrow right back. "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing."

"Something," he countered. "Come on. Tell me or leave, before you start acting like even more of a bitch."

Quinn glowered up at him. "Exactly nothing I said just now was bitchy."

"It's not what you said, it's your tone."

"What are you, a woman?"

Puck set the iron in its hook with finality and pointed at her. "That's sexist. And exactly what I'm talking about. Now, come on, what's wrong with you?"

Quinn heaved a slow sigh. "Sam and Rachel...asked me to be the godmother."

He stared. "Those _bastards_." And then he picked up his ironing again.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not angry about it, I just… Can't decide."

"Why not? It's not a huge deal, Quinn. You sign some papers, you go home, you send a birthday card once a year."

"Not with Sam and Rachel. They want me to be...involved."

Puck paused then, more seriously this time. "Aren't you...kind of involved already? I mean, you gave Rachel, like, _all_ your books on pregnancy, and practically all the maternity clothes you had left. So what's the difference, when you think about it?"

He bent back over the ironing board, and Quinn smoothed out the skirt of her dress. As much as she hated to admit it, he had a point. Even as much as she had tried to keep her distance from Rachel and the whole pregnancy, she had been there. To lend clothes and books, even advice on occasion. And of course there were the monetary donations. How much more involved could Sam or Rachel want her to be?

#

Rachel was both terrified and delighted to be going back home. Terrified because at the hospital, there was the constant comfort that if something went wrong, doctors and nurses were _everywhere_, at hers and Cameron's beck and call. Delighted, on the flipside, because she was tired of hospital beds and hospital walls and hospital smells and hospital sounds. And she was eager to introduce Cameron to his home, however temporary it was.

Although Rachel had landed a gig on Broadway and had been living in New York when she got pregnant, it had only been one show, albeit a very successful one, and all the money from it that didn't go directly into savings quickly went down the drain with hospital bills. Sam, coming from an already impoverished background, wasn't in much better shape, so they'd decided it would be better for her to move back to Lima until she could, or wanted to, work again. Her fathers were more than happy to welcome her back and help her out with anything and everything she needed, taking care of her every whim when Sam wasn't there to do so. And they had all pitched in to create quite a little baby Eden in Rachel's bedroom, complete with more calming sky blue walls and pastel yellow stars on the ceiling, and Rachel simply couldn't wait to show it to Cameron.

The doctors said he wasn't aware of most things and that smiles and giggles were simply reflexive mimicry, but Rachel swore every time he looked at her, he beamed so bright his eyes sparkled. They were slowly, but surely, turning darker and darker blue as the days went by, and she knew soon they would be brown just like hers. She still hoped he got his father's nose, though.

Rachel was sure the doctors were quite wrong that he didn't know what was really going on when she walked into the house to a quietly sung, "Surprise!" from all of their closest friends, and Cameron flailed his arms with a bubbling giggle. The 'surprise' immediately fell into 'awws' and Brittany was the first to lunge forward for a turn holding the baby, while Rachel found a seat on the couch surrounded by pillows and blankets for her comfort. Her fathers were already filming and taking pictures of Cameron in everyone's arms, looking at them like they were aliens, and Sam brought her a water before he was being harangued by the boys into having a cigar to celebrate - outside, thankfully.

And while the rest of the room was cooing over Cameron or teasing Sam over his fatherhood, Quinn threaded her way around the edges of the group and sat next to Rachel, prompting softly, "Do you need anything?"

Rachel simply beamed at her. "No, I'm fine. Thank you, though." She breathed out a sigh, watching Kurt carefully holding Cameron up next to the big 'Welcome Home, Baby Boy!' sign for a picture. "I'm just happy to be home. I was getting so sick of that hospital."

"I understand," Quinn murmured.

She turned her gaze to that ever stoic face and smiled. "I know you do. That's...a big part of why I really would love it if you would be Cameron's godmother…"

Quinn was smirking her amusement already. "Rachel…"

"Please?" Rachel sat up a bit more, covering one of Quinn's hands with her own. "Quinn, I know you and I haven't been the closest the past few years and that whenever one of us is stepping up and being the good friend, it's been you every time. You must feel like I take advantage of our friendship. But...I know it's not much, but this is my way of saying thank you? For always being there for me, for believing in me. For being my friend."

She was just looking at her with those penetrating hazel eyes, so steadily Rachel was starting to feel heat in her cheeks. "I was going to say yes. I will be his godmother."

Rachel forgot all about blushing and grinned. "Really?! Oh, that's wonderful, Quinn, thank you! Thank you, thank you!"

She flung herself forward, looping her arms around Quinn's neck for a tight hug. Quinn always smelled so lovely. Rachel sighed contentedly, squeezing her a bit until Quinn's hands patted on her back, indicating her discomfort, and she pulled away to smile at her again.

"Thank you, Quinn."

"You don't need to thank me."

"Yes, I do," Rachel corrected, adjusting one of the pillows at her back. "I want you to know I don't take you for granted. I know how lucky I am that you're my friend. And I'm going to do better about keeping your friendship, from now on, okay?"

Quinn was shaking her head. "You couldn't lose - "

"Who's ready for presents?!" Daddy called, and Rachel couldn't help but bounce a little on the cushions.

"I am, I am! C'mere, baby boy," she beckoned, holding her arms out for Cameron, and Mercedes passed him down to her carefully.

Sam sat on the arm of the couch next to them before Dad started organizing the presents, humming suspiciously when he picked up and rattled a few next to his ear. Rachel giggled at his dramatics through trying to hold Cameron properly - he kept wriggling wildly, kicking his feet and waving his arms - and she realized she hadn't seen Quinn holding him yet, but when she turned to offer, Quinn was gone.

Gone from the room, in fact, Rachel realized when she looked around the group, and she frowned deeply - but before she could ask anyone, Dad had finally settled on a present and sent it along the line to Rachel and Sam and Cameron.

"Okay, this one's frooom...Aunt Tina, Cameron! Say thank you!" He wriggled and cried rather than his usual giggle, and Rachel frowned.

"Someone's a little cranky, huh?" Sam reached to brush his hair back. "You want me to put him down for a nap?"

"No, it's okay, um. Keep opening presents, I'll see what I can do."

Rachel stood carefully, lifting him over her shoulder to pat his back as she went up the stairs. This was one of her first hurdles as a mother - aside from the giving birth part - and she could not fail. She would not. She was Rachel Berry, after all.


End file.
